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What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Dann the dog

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Well, my main worry is that every single thing of my daily life becomes something that I want to implement in my stories.

Reading a work that touches me, or that makes my blood boil? My MC's personnality unconsciously shifts a bit.

Seeing dogs playing at the park? Well, animals sure are fun!

Buying cheese? Well, time to implement a lenghty banquet scene with minute descriptions about the flavor of food, the cracking of the chicken bones upon being served, etc.

Anyway, it is quite hard to compartiment everything, and hopefully, someday, I'll have written enough to cover every subjects that pops up, day after day.
 

The Second Moon

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I'm re-reading a WIP that I'm in the middle of and the beginning is horrible! I introduced way too many characters way too fast! But I have to finish Draft 1 first before I go back and edit or else I'll be stuck in an editing loop.
 

iszevthere

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I wrote six short stories in two days recently, and submitted two of them to a site, to practice submitting. "I'm about to get zero attention for my writing, and I'm so excited!" I gushed to an acquaintance, who laughed. Never thought I'd say that or feel that. I am plotting two plays. One will be just for me, so I can feel like I can write plays again. The other, I might actually submit but I have no idea, but am not there anyway. It'll be my first time writing plays intended to be short. This might turn out awesome.
 

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No. Please. I'm at a point where I need to transition the dialogue's focus from MC #1 to MC #2 to help add developments to MC #2's life/story. But. Neither. Will. Let. It. GO. It all keeps looping back to MC #1's focus and I need it to stahp! :cry:
 

clawyer80

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When it comes to my writing, my concern is mostly getting it done. I seriously have whole novels in my head. When I get the chance to write, they just come out. I'm fortunate to never be cursed with writers block or points where the story's progression becomes flawed or inconsistent. The downside is that there is only so much time in the day, and even though the stories seem to be there completely, it still takes time to get them out. It would be nice if there was a machine that could just extract it directly from your mind and put it into a doc on the computer. Since that doesn't exist, they basically just sit in my head nagging me until I can get to them.
 

The Second Moon

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Two of my MCs (In different WIPs) have hair dyed blue. One is a boy with cyan eyebrows and the other is a woman with the end of her hair dyed light blue. Weird? It gets weirder. I was messing around with online quizzes and one of them said I should dye my hair blue. I never will, but it feels uncanny to me that it was suggested when I have so many MCs with blue hair.
 

The Second Moon

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I confused a cobbler for a blacksmith when plotting a short story about a alien who makes things out of comets. I thought a cobbler made weapons, but they made shoes! This story just took a turn on its head now that he makes shoes!

(I know I could just make him a blacksmith, but having shoes made out of comet pieces feels less overdone than weapons made of comet chunks).
 

Sinuka

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I have been writing on my manga story for five years so far, working it out bit by bit in my free time. I think about the characters and plot everday and keep on changing and adjusting details all the time.
For some time now, I finally feel really proud of what I have created so far and how everything drastically evolved and totally changed from the first idea to the story I have today. However, I am also really scared that it maybe won't be seen by people when I publish it. Really scared. The little content issues I still have are torturing me since I want my story to be as perfect as possible. Not for myself but for my characters who I love from the bottom of my heart.
 

The Second Moon

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I have been writing on my manga story for five years so far, working it out bit by bit in my free time. I think about the characters and plot everday and keep on changing and adjusting details all the time.
For some time now, I finally feel really proud of what I have created so far and how everything drastically evolved and totally changed from the first idea to the story I have today. However, I am also really scared that it maybe won't be seen by people when I publish it. Really scared. The little content issues I still have are torturing me since I want my story to be as perfect as possible. Not for myself but for my characters who I love from the bottom of my heart.

You sound just like me. I love my characters so much! I have two published MG linked short story collections out and I'm hoping, for Christmas, to get a book/guide on how to market (and sell) my collections. Good luck with your writing journey, Sinuka!
 

CalRazor

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In the process of writing a longer, more atmospheric piece. Taking my time and writing it in chunks, then combing over it again to make sure everything is in order. I very rarely put it description in my stories, so adding in some vivid imagery for a bit of contrast.
 

PamelaC

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I guess the fact that my writing is on my mind at all again is what's on my mind about my writing. I opened the WIP doc today and read over the last few pages. I didn't realize I was 90 pages into it. I'm going to try to get to page 100 before I go back to work on January 4.

Then I'll have just...like...300 pages to go! Piece of cake, lol!
 

sayamini

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Man, I'm just trapped in query letter hell, both the mentality and the subforum. I'm entering Author Mentor Match in a few days and I want this letter to be perfect, so I'm just... completely overwhelmed. I've NEVER been able to get it right. And I also just finished another manuscript, so I'm waiting to hear back from betas and anxious that the feedback will be bad. I feel like I'm working on something writing-related all day every day, and it's getting fatiguing. But I want to be published so bad!! I want 2021 to be the year I gain representation! But I'm struggling a lot, and it's a daily thing. I don't know. I hope it gets easier. I feel like I can't stop working no matter what, but I also kind of wish I could just... pause.
 

TurbulentMuse

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My WIP is Haunting Me

I can't tell if I should be trying to make my WIP novel-length or leave it as a novella. It's the longest thing I've ever written, it's currently at 43,000 words. I only have one beta reader at the moment and they're going through the draft chapter by chapter, so I haven't gotten any feedback on the overall plot and I just keep wondering. Do I need to beef up the subplots? Do I need more descriptions? Is the main plot too easy? I'm feel like I'm too entrenched in the story to tell. I want to write a full-length novel, but am I letting that cloud my judgement? I am a nototious underwriter so there could be legit problems with the manuscript. I just don't know.
 

Cephus

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My fingers hurt. In addition to other things, I wrote over 10k words in my WIP today. That puts me somewhere close to 15k, counting all of the other stuff I've done. Ouch.
 

Cephus

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Wow Cephus, that’s a huge accomplishment! Congrats and I hope your fingers feel better soon!

It's really not that big of a deal, I just wasn't ready for it. Anyhow, that book is now in the can and it's off to editing another starting tomorrow.
 

TurbulentMuse

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I’m even more haunted by my WIP now. Should I change the POV to something more traditional to make the story more accessible and easier to read or should I stick with what I believe feels right for the story? Am I being selfish and damaging my story because I just like that POV or does it really fit as well as I think it does? I just don’t know what to do.
 

Nanginoo

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Working on two short stories right now, and gathering my thoughts for a novel I've had on my mind for a while. I feel more or less ambivalent towards the short stories - they're both good ideas, but my execution... I don't know so much. There's not as much emotional texture there as I would like, and it's difficult to tell where it crosses the line from 'what the story calls for' to just plain boring. C'est la vie.
As far as the novel goes, I'm just plain intimidated to get started on it. I know the story pretty well, inside out, up and down, however you want it, but long form tends to burn me out, or has in the past. There's some research to be done as well - it takes place in rural England between the World Wars - and to be quite frank, I hate research. Or rather, I love it too much and forget how to prioritize the information as it applies to the story.
Despite all that negativity, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing. No, really, I am...
 

doemoe21

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Sooooo much is on my mind about writing. The desire to restart my entire draft while knowing I shouldn't is the biggest one. I have so many changes I already plan on making to the story, but I always hear "just finish the draft without going back and editing" so I won't. Another problem I have is finishing up my story. I've never written a book before, and I didn't take the time to outline everything. I just went for it and wrote. Next time, y'all, I will NOT be doing that. So I have no idea what will happen! But I am optimistic. Writing is a part of my soul, and it'll all work out.
 

starrystorm

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Hi! I'm outlining my next book. Originally it was supposed to be a sci-fi thriller, but it's ended up as a mystery with speculative elements (I don't know how to categorize the strange element since it isn't horror, science fiction, or fantasy.) I have no idea how to write a mystery. I thought it would be easy since I love mystery shows like Psych, The Mentalist, and Monk. Turns out writing one is hard. I'm used to action books, so a slower-paced book like this will be interesting for sure. The book after that that I plan to write is going to be a romance time-travel novel, and romance is way off the charts for what I normally write. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm experimenting in different genres. All YA of still.
 

BenPanced

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I've been getting bits of ideas on two WIPs that I think will get them moving again (one involves moving two inciting incidents to later in the story, the other involves changing a character's name and motivations, thereby possibly opening it up to a series). Two others are mere ideas at this point that need the "how?" and "why?" questions answered before I can even get them started (one is a fake boyfriend romcom, the other can only possibly described as The Prisoner meets The War of the Worlds Original Recipes, which means I really need to watch the Patrick McGoohan series on Blu-ray and read the H. G. Wells book "in the name of research/procrastination" so I don't make it sound like it's a blatant homage/rip-off/mash-up of the originals).